July 04, 2017: A study carried out by American and Chinese biologists has concluded that had it not been for the extinction of dinosaurs by the asteroid, 88% of frog's species we have today would not exist. The frogs' survival was a benefit reaped out of the death of dinosaurs.
The Asteroid that hit the planet wiped out three-quarters on animals on the Earth. The extinction is popularly known as the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-PG) boundary.
The asteroid which met the Earth 66 million years ago had a direct impact in wiping out dinosaurs from the face of the planet, however, the frogs actually benefitted out of it. The emergence of frogs can be traced back to 200 million years.
The resilient creatures were able to take advantage of an evolutionary vacuum that was created as a result of the destruction. It has been observed that 9 out of 10 frog species that exist today evolved from just three frog lineages that survived the asteroid impact, mentioned ANI report.
Frogs are "master survivors" stated David Wake, co-author of the research paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. They were quick to take to trees which at the time were "evolving to their full flowering". The team of Gene researchers studied 95 sets of genes from 156 frog species.
Today, frogs are the most diverse group of vertebrates with more than 6,700 species discovered.
– prepared by Saksham Narula of NewsGram. Twitter: @Saksham2394
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